PHYSICIAN-PATIENT COMMUNICATION IN THE URBAN CLINICAL SETTING

Improving communication between doctor and patient can help meet the o bjective of providing high-quality, cost-effective, accessible health care. The benefits of effective communication are considerable. Studie s indicate that good physician-patient communication can improve diagn ostic accuracy and treatment adherence, increase the satisfaction of d octor and patient, and thereby reduce the risk of malpractice suits. C ommunication in the urban clinical setting comes with a unique set of difficulties. The sociocultural differences between doctor and patient tend to ber more pronounced, the interactions with patients more shor t-term, and the resulting medical encounters of a more impersonal natu re. Physicians and patients frequently differ on role expectations for one another. It is nevertheless possible to effect successful communi cation in the urban medical environment and strengthen the partnership -the ''social system''-that exists between doctor and patient. The Mil es Institute for Health Care Communication has developed a model, know n at the ABCDE approach, that may help facilitate communication in the urban setting. In this article the technique of the ABCDE model are s ummarized and a case study is used to shown how these techniques might be applied.